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Saturday, June 21, 2014

Ritualists invade Ebonyi state; Mother loses 2 children in one night

A shrine where ritual killings allegedly takes place has been discovered in the Ishiagu community in Ivo LGA of
Ebonyi State. In the shrine, human parts sell for between N500,000 and N1million. Scary stuff! Read the full report from Saturday Sun below...

It was gathered that when the nefarious activities going on in the
shrine were ex­posed, youths of the community went wild and destroyed
the shrine as well as the prop­erty of the Chief priest and two
suspected agents (names withheld by us) from Ngwog­wo community. Among
the items recovered from the shrine is a picture of the Chief priest
holding something that looks like a human hand as well as a register
said to be containing the names of the people who had been killed by the
evil men and those yet to be killed.

And to prevent the situation from getting out of hand, the police stormed the commu­nity and arrested some people.

When the reporter went to Ishiagu on May 7, there was apprehension in
the air. Apparently gripped by fear, the villagers kept sealed lips.
Even the traditional ruler, HRH Eze Lawrence O. Chukwu, Ibina 1 of Okue
autonomous community, an old fel­low, claimed that he had not been
properly briefed on the matter.

However, the body language of the people spoke volumes. They appeared
to be living in palpable fear. For instance, an indigene of the
community, Mr Charles (surname with­held) who was supposed to be our
contact person chickened out when the reporter ar­rived Ishiagu. In
fact, in Ishiagu, the fear of ritualists is the beginning of wisdom. Or
so it seems.

And this is coming not long after sus­pected ritualists invaded the
community and stole nine children. Mrs Nnenna Emmanuel Okonkwo, a mother
of six, whose two chil­dren were stolen in one night told the
report­er: “As I was sleeping, I was woken up at 4am when I heard the
sound of my door be­ing broken. I began to shout inside my room, ‘who is
that? Who is that? Who is that?’ Then some men broke down the door and
pointed their light at my face. They started dragging my eight-month old
son with me and I called out to my mother-in-law in the next room,
telling her that some people had broken into my room to take away my
baby. As I was struggling with them, they gave me dirty slaps on either
side of the cheek. The impact of the slaps as my eyes were covered with
blood. As they were taking my child away, my husband’s younger sister
blocked them outside. So, they kicked her with their boots and she fell,
hitting her waist on the ground.

“Then, they went to the other room where my mother-in-law and my
daughter were sleeping and broke down the door as well. They entered the
room and took away my daughter, aged three years and seven months who
was sleeping with her grandmother. My mother in-law shouted that they
can shoot her but leave her grand children, but they refused. They
carried the two children into the vehicle they parked outside. Before
our neighbours could come out, they had zoomed off. Since then, we have
not set eyes on the children. My mother in-law said she could not live
with what happened; that it was better for her to die. And she died two
weeks later.”

In a related development, a six-man gang which specialised in the
sale of human parts for ritual purposes in Nkwerre, Imo State was
recently smashed by the local vigilance group. It was gathered that when
members of the gang were arrested, they confessed that they had been
kidnapping their victims at various locations in the state. They also
volunteered that they use the vital organs of their victims for rituals
even as some were harvested and sold to people who needed them to
transplant failed organs.

Confessing to the crime, they explained that the prices for their
‘goods’ were not fixed. According to them, they sold the parts between
N500,000 and N1million, depend­ing on what was in demand.
The gory act assumed a life of its own when the men took members of
the local vigilance group and policemen to their abat­toir in a forest
in Umugara village, Nkwerre where the decomposing corpses of some of
their victims, mostly women and children were found.

In Ibiasoegbe in Oru West LGA of Imo State, a 66 year-old woman
identified as Mrs. Josephine Okorie was gruesomely mur­dered in her farm
recently.

Few days after Mrs. Okorie, who was a church warden at St. Paul’s
Curch, Ibi­asoegbe was killed, the people of Umuakaje Umuseke, Okwudor
community in Njaba LGA was thrown into mourning and con­fusion following
the killing of one of their daughters, 28 year-old Mrs. Chikodi
Nzer­em. Her three-month old baby boy was also stolen by the cradle
snatchers who cut off her head.

A source said: “Apparently, the ritualists wanted to go away with
their victim’s decap­itated head but when they heard the voice of
another woman, who was coming along the bush path, they escaped,
abandoning both the head and the body. The woman raised the alarm and
other farmers came but the evil people had escaped.”

In the same vein, Mrs Chikodi Nzerem, a widow and nursing mother of a
four month-old baby boy, was murdered in her father’s house in Okwudor
in Njaba LGA of Imo State. Her baby was also stolen.

Family sources alleged that the mother of three was sent to the great
beyond by her boyfriend who had pestered her for marriage without
success since her husband died about two years ago. “I believe she was
killed be­cause she refused to hand over the child to her boyfriend and
no one knows what has become of the tot. Perhaps, it has been used for
ritual,” said Chikodi’s sibling.

Indeed, investigation revealed that ritual­ists are on the prowl
looking for people to devour. Hence the rate of ritual attacks and
killings have increased considerably in re­cent times. It is the same
story everywhere, as no part of the country is being marginal­ised on
this score.

On March 1, Mrs Zainab Mohammed was brutally raped at Kukshi village,
Dass LGA of Bauchi by three men who also plucked her eyes with a knife
for ritual.

The victim, a 30-year old mother of four who is physically
challenged, said: “They held my neck and I almost died. They twist­ed my
hands, they opened my two and took turns to rape me. I was fainting.
Then they brought an object – I don’t know whether it was a knife or not
and they started removing my left eye. I screamed and tried to struggle
but they removed my left eye. They started removing the other eye and I
screamed loud­er.”

It was learnt that the evil men took the woman’s eye to a native doctor who alleg­edly offered them N1million.

In May, a 54-year old grandmother, Suku­ratu Salami and three others
including a cemetery guard were paraded at the Lagos State Police
Command, Ikeja for trading in human parts such as skulls, bones, liver
and intestines.

Salami, a mother of three children whose ages are 30, 27 and 23 years
respectively, explained that she was tempted to go into the weird
business by the irresistible offer from a voodoo practitioner. “A
herbalist ap­proached me last and asked for human parts. When he told
how much they buy parts, I was tempted. I approached one Tantoloun, who
works in a grave yard. He sold a skull for N10,000 and I sold it in turn
for N20,000. Greed made me to continue un­til I was arrested. I bought
pieces of bones N2,000, liver and intestines for N1,000 each and resell
for N5,000 or more depending on the buyer’s bargaining power.” ­

It could, indeed, be said that ritualists are running riot in the South West.

In March, a man was caught in Ibadan, Oyo State with three human
tongues. The incident occurred three days after the shock­ing discovery
of the horror forest at Soka area of Ibadan where scores of skulls,
hu­man skeletons, mutilated and decomposing bodies were found.

In April, an eight-year old girl identified as Amarachi missed death
by the whiskers as a mobile policeman, Gbuchenge Augus­tine with Force
Number 400823 allegedly wanted to use her for rituals.
Amarachi was found under the police­man’s bed in his one-room
apartment at Olu­fowobi Street, Ikosi-Ketu, Lagos with her mouth gagged
and her hands and legs tied.

Amarachi’s father, Mr Patrick Abakwan, said that before his daughter
was rescued, “the man had twisted her neck and used an object to break
her skull thinking she would die in the process but God saved her.”

Also in April, a storey-building that al­legedly served as the
operational base of ritualists was uncovered in Akinremi Estate in
Adigbe area of Ogun State. Discovered at the den were suspected human
blood in a calabash, a coffin, human effigy, a live scor­pion and
personal effects believed to belong to victims who might have been
wasted.

The discovery came barely 24 hours after a similar scene was discovered in Egbado village in Ewekoro LGA of the state.

Horror of immense proportion played out in Egwudinage Obegu village
in Ebonyi State recently when a 30-year old man sim­ply identified as
Chukwudi allegedly killed and beheaded his 56-year old father, Mi­chael.
After severing the head of his father, Chukwudi drank his blood and ate
up his neck.
Maintaining that Chukwudi’s action might not be unconnected with
ritual killing, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Chris
Anyanwu disclosed: “He (Chuk­wudi) was arrested on April 1, 2014 and
before he was arrested, he was running and waving his machete which he
used to cut his father’s head and threatened to kill anybody who moved
close to him. Meanwhile he was overpowered and arrested but was caught
eating the part of the severed head, after he ate-up the entire neck of
the severed head. I think it is not unconnected with ritual kill­ing
because it does appear he may have been asked to do such a thing.”

On June 10, a young boy hawking belts on Alhaji Jamiu Sulaimon Street
in Itele, Ota area of Ogun State escaped death by the skin of his teeth
as he was almost killed by sus­pected ritualists who lured him into a
house on the pretext that they wanted to patronise him.

It was learnt that the boy was hawking with his friend when he was
called into the compound. But when the boy did not come out after about
30 minutes, his friend raised the alarm. And when the police stormed the
house, an attempt had been made to slaugh­ter him, as there was a big
gash on his neck. One of his eyes was oozing blood, perhaps an attempt
was made to pluck it.

The Ogun State PPRO, Mr Muyiwa Ade­jobi said: “Our men from the Itele
Division moved in as soon as they got a report about the house
suspected to be used by kidnap­pers and succeeded in rescuing the boy
alive even though he was in bad shape.”

Recently, a heap of over 20 human skulls, skeletons and decomposing
bodies were un­covered at Kilometre 15 on the Aba/Azumi­ni Highway,
otherwise known as ‘No man’s land’ after Akpaa village in Obingwa LGA of
Abia State. There, victims are butchered and their vital organs
removed. One of the vic­tims was identified as 26-year old Onyekachi
Chukwu, who hailed from Ahaba Imenyi in Isuikwuato LGA of Abia State.

A source attributed the upsurge of ritual killings to forthcoming
election and the get-rich-quick syndrome. “As we approach the election
year, many desperate politicians will go to any length in order to win
election. They will engage the services of native doc­tors who may
request for human body parts to do the medicine. And because the end
jus­tifies the means for them, they will engage thugs to kidnap and kill
people whose body parts will be removed and forwarded to the native
doctors who requested for them.

“Again, the get-rich-quick bug seems to have bitten more people
nowadays. And such desperados are ready to do anything, in­cluding
harvesting human organs for money rituals,” the source said.
Culled from Sunday Sun